The green way : Environmental educator relies on fun and facts

She's a teacher at heart. Susan Finzel-Aldred has been spotted at neighborhood cleanups, solid-waste collection sites, Christmas-tree recycling events. Her wild imagination and droll humor have inspired trash fashion shows and recycled art projects, while her passion for the planet has decked this "Litter Bee" in yellow and black stripes and bobbing antennae. Officially, she's environmental coordinator for Pueblo City-County Health Department, but she notes that she's really a health educator. And following her 30-year career in Pueblo reveals teaching at every turn. "I see myself as an environmental educator," she says. "My degree is in natural resource conservation. I try to relate how people's experiences are connected to a natural setting, how the basics of soil, air, water relate to our life." Finzel-Aldred, 52, currently is leading a series of art and science workshops at the Buell Children's Museum at the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center. At the first session, she helped children make valentine decorations from discarded items. On March 7, she'll tell kids and parents how to "Follow the Green Brick Road" to a healthier household, and April 11, she'll help 6- to 10-year-olds make paper from recycled materials. Donna Stinchcomb, curator of the children's museum, says Finzel-Aldred's commitment is obvious. "You can tell when Susan presents the fun and informative recycling programs that she does here that she really cares about the world we live in and wants to make it a great place for children to continue to live in." The kids' reaction to her is "wonderful and delightful," Stinchcomb says. "They're learning something about the watershed but it's not preachy. It's presented in a fun way. That's why we have her again and again." Finzel-Aldred says there's a link between resources and art. "Art can spread the message of conservation. Art provokes people to see things in different ways. Creativity doesn't have to use virgin materials. There are such creative artists making mosaics and using found objects, creating beautiful garden sculptures from glass bottles. It can be a statement about our culture: Not everything we produce has to be from new materials." Educating the public Finzel-Aldred has been with the health department since 2005. Her job takes her into fourth-grade classrooms to talk about the area's watershed and about pollution. Another aspect of her work is educating the public about recycling and solid waste and how to dispose of it. She does this through the recycling hotline and the Pueblo Area Recycling Guide, which is published four or five times a year. Finzel-Aldred also is responsible for promoting, hosting and managing large public events like waste collection days at the Colorado State Fairgrounds, tire collection and plastic collection days, America Recycles Day observances on Nov. 15, and other events for which the health department has funding. Dr. Christine Nevin-Woods, director of the health department, says Finzel-Aldred practices what she preaches and has helped the agency become green and recycle systematically. "Susan has vast knowledge about environmental sustainability, recycling and the process of reusing our natural resources," Nevin-Woods says. "Her creativeness allows her to teach and keep children's interest and also teach people of all ages." Finzel-Aldred says she's proud that awareness has gone up since she's been on the job and that people are more conscious of where their trash and recycled items should go -- "not only as a way to save money but what's good for the environment." Asked if she's gratified by the job or finds it a thankless task, she answers, "People are very gracious on the hotline. Many are new residents, coming from elsewhere where there are comprehensive recycling programs. I try to explain to them that (here) there are economic and geographic considerations, plus the political climate -- traditions and behaviors, the idea 'We've always done it this way.'?" 'Shockingly beautiful' Finzel-Aldred came to Pueblo in 1984 to intern at the Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo and was promoted to program coordinator. She ran field trips, nature day camps, presented programs, wrote grants and learned and taught others about the Arkansas River riparian area and the Upper Sonoran Desert ecosystem in which Pueblo is located. "It was really new to me coming from the oak, maple and hickory forests of Illinois and Wisconsin," she remembers. "It was a total shock; shockingly beautiful. The vistas, the open space, the profile of mountains all were quite dramatic." Finzel-Aldred moved to McClelland School in 1993 where she was a teacher and helped develop the greenhouse and the middle school and outdoor curricula, and took students on field trips. She's served on the board of the Mountain Park Environmental Center in Beulah since 2007 and she also serves on the board of the Colorado State Association for Recycling. She's a Brownie and Girl Scout leader, likes to hike and to snowshoe, and she's been married to Archie Aldred -- who has a local farming/ranching background and who shares her love of the outdoors -- for nearly 20 years. Teaching is what keeps her in this area, Finzel-Aldred says. "I'm really fortunate to still be working in the environmental field after 30 years. It can be tough going. I could have moved to greener places -- people are always saying, 'You should get a job in Boulder' -- but I didn't want to. I want to go where the teaching is needed. I don't want to preach to the choir." maryp@chieftain.com